We just got back from seeing Blue Man
Group. It was a surprise for us since we hadn’t bought any
tickets for lack of funding. My friend Kelly and his wife weren’t
able to go because their son was sick. They kindly gave us their
tickets. Tracy Bonham opened for them and she was really bland
and unimaginative. Then, it was Venus
Hum whom I’d never heard of but was really quite good. I
bought one of their CDs after the show. (It’s the first American
CD
I’ve bought in quite a while.) A bit like Bjork, they
are. It’s two guys with a bunch of Powerbooks and
synthesizers and the singer who, in one number with Blue Man group,
came out in a striped light-up dress that would activate its lights
in rhythm to the music. Alas, I looked at their CD cover and it said
MCA
records, meaning they’re probably stuck with ballooning record
company debts and a rotten contract like most bands.
Blue Man Group was great fun when they came out. They
were making fun of rock concert stereotypes by following a set of rules
for concerts that was displayed on a screen. Lots of impressive
visuals…some that I couldn’t exactly figure out how they did….like
a laser silhouette. Here‘s a funny
little video where they played a touch o’ DEVO. One funny thing
was that they were selling ironic trucker hats in the merchandise
booth, but around here, trucker hats aren’t ironic. People were
buying them seriously. Anyway, the show was great and we had a lotta
fun.